Glenn Reynolds Says

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Friday, April 02, 2010

Is There a Racial Recession?

Indeed there is. As I was sitting in the Doctors office I came across a good article in the National Review by Kevin Hassett addressing this subject. It is online here. As bad as this recession is, it is extra bad for black folks. the graph below has some info.

While I believe that racism is pretty much dead, many people are prejudice. the author describes it well saying

"It was a Great Recession for whites. It has been a Great Depression for blacks"

With the unemployment rate soaring, conservatives blame progressives and vice versa. Why don't conservatives get any black voters? One reason is they ignore the above.

"However bad the unemployment rate is for the general population, it is always worse for black Americans. On average, the black unemployment rate has been 6.6 percentage points higher than the white unemployment rate since 1972"

There may be other variables involved like skill levels and education, but I am sure discrimination is still alive and well in the good old USA.

"One recent study by economists Yusuf Baskaya and Isaac Mbiti of Brown University went to Olympian lengths to explain the differential employment results and found that they could not, then concluded that employment differences “may stem from discrimination by employers who lay off black workers disproportionately during economic downturns.” While it is possible that there is some other omitted variable, Occam’s Razor suggests that discrimination is alive and well."

Okay....I am sure many people would still argue the above. Hassett writes that

"If, for example, blacks with higher skills are unlikely to experience discrimination, then let’s improve minority education with charter-school initiatives. If the economy suffers because marginal tax rates rise, then blacks will feel it the most. If blue-collar wages and employment respond favorably to corporate tax rates, then lowering them will disproportionately benefit black workers."

The one thing we cannot do is deny there is a problem. We saw 96 percent of black Americans vote for President Obama. Our conservative leaders must address this problem. Is that possible? I am doubtful. Maybe one day, yes just maybe...